Crimea solidifies ties with Russia ahead of referendum on leaving Ukraine
Crimea solidifies ties with Russia ahead of referendum on leaving Ukraine
(about 7 hours later)
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine — Russia and Crimea moved to solidify ties Friday as pro-Russia parties in Crimea planned campaigns for a referendum on splitting from Ukraine and Moscow enthusiastically greeted a visiting Crimean delegation.
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine —The possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine dimmed Friday as Crimean authorities prepared for a referendum on whether to split from Ukraine and join Russia, which made clear it would welcome the region like a long-lost brother.
A day after President Obama denounced the referendum and ordered sanctions over the Crimean intervention, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the U.S. position, saying he could not ignore what he described as “calls for help” from ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
A day after President Obama denounced the referendum and ordered sanctions over Russia’s intervention in the autonomous region, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the U.S. position, saying he could not ignore what he described as “calls for help” from ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
Russia announced it will send a mission to observe the March 16 referendum, and the Foreign Ministry said the “NATO factor” was a dangerous element that was stoking tension over Ukraine. Crimean authorities blocked airwaves used by a television station broadcasting from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and replaced it with a Russian station.
In Moscow, Russian lawmakers warmly applauded a Crimean delegation, calling the referendum legitimate and pledging their support if Crimea comes back to Russia.
In Moscow, a Crimean delegation led by Volodymyr Konstantynov, head of Crimea’s regional parliament, was applauded by Russian parliamentarians a day after Crimean lawmakers voted to join Russia and validate the decision in a referendum. Konstantynov said the autonomous republic will hold an “honest and transparent” referendum on its status in the presence of observers from Russia and other countries.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said the world would not recognize the “so-called referendum” scheduled for March 16 if Crimean voters elected to go with Russia. He said that Kiev would hold direct talks with Moscow but that Russia must first pull back its troops now believed to be scattered at checkpoints and military bases across Crimea and halt its support for “separatists and terrorists.”
Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian legislature, assured the delegation that Crimea has Russia’s support.
With just more than a week before the vote, the heated rhetoric underscored how likely it appeared that Crimeans will opt for Russia. The regional parliament voted Thursday to join Russia and called the referendum to ratify its decision. Almost six in 10 people in Crimea are ethnic Russians and Russian speakers.
“The Federation Council will support the Crimean parliament’s ruling on the referendum, and that ruling will be legitimate,” Matviyenko said.
Crimean officials are printing 2.2 million ballots, in Russian, Ukranian and Crimean Tatar, asking voters to choose whether to stick with Ukraine or be annexed to Russia.
Obama said Thursday that the referendum would violate both the Ukrainian constitution and international law. He called on Russia to help reduce tensions on the Crimean Peninsula, as he ordered sanctions on Russians involved in Russia’s military intervention and Ukrainians who have jeopardized democracy and looted national assets. Obama later spoke by phone with Putin for more than hour.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, spoke on the telephone Friday, after meeting twice in person this week. U.S. sanctions against Russia will “inevitably boomerang,” Lavrov told Kerry, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement reported by the Interfax news agency.
In a statement Friday, Putin said he and Obama were still far apart on the situation in Ukraine, whose new pro-Western government he accused of making “absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.”
“Lavrov cautioned against hasty and ill-considered moves that can damage Russian-American relations, especially sanctions,” the statement said. The ministry said the two diplomats were planning further meetings.
Putin asserted, “Russia cannot ignore calls for help, and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telephoned Ukraine’s defense minister Friday to stress “the firm commitment of the United States” to support Ukraine, and to praise “the performance and the restraint [of] the Ukrainian armed forces, who have not allowed this situation to escalate,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John F. Kirby said.
In Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned Friday that the world would not recognize a Crimean vote to break away and join Russia.
Kirby confirmed that additional aircraft would be sent to Poland to “plus-up” an existing U.S. aviation attachment based in Poland, but said decisions on numbers and timing have not been made. The Defense Department sent six F-15 fighter jets to Lithuania this week after Baltic nations requested additional defense assets as part of an existing air patrol mission.
“No one in the civilized world will recognize the results of a so-called referendum carried out by these so-called authorities,” Yatsenyuk said.
Kirby also clarified that the USS Truxtun, a guided-missile destroyer, was in the Black Sea as part of a routine deployment scheduled before the current upheaval in Ukraine.
He said that before Ukraine would hold talks with Russia, Moscow must withdraw its troops from Crimea and stop supporting “separatists and terrorists.”
Asked about the number of Russian troops in Crimea, he put the total at “near 20,000,” including up to 6,000 that have been newly deployed, in addition to those already stationed at Russian bases in the Ukrainian region. Russia has denied sending any additional troops to Crimea.
International efforts to defuse the crisis have so far been stymied. On Friday, for the second time in two days, a team of 47 military and civilian observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was blocked from entering Crimea, according to Agence France-Presse. The group was stopped by armed men at a checkpoint flying a Russian flag.
Warning from Gazprom
With Russian ships continuing to blockade Ukrainian navy vessels in the Sevastopol harbor, a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer, USS Truxtun, entered the Black Sea on Friday through Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait for what the Navy said was a routine visit unrelated to the events in Ukraine. The Navy said the destroyer, with 300 sailors on board, was previously scheduled to train with Romanian and Bulgarian naval forces.
Russia’s presence in Crimea appears to be increasing by the day. Entrances to ports and military bases are guarded by Russians in uniforms without insignia or local militias wearing ribbons that identify them as pro-Russian. Moscow has denied that its troops are spread around the region, outside of its Black Sea Fleet quarters.
In justifying the Crimean decision to hold a plebiscite, Matviyenko said: “It’s sufficient to recall the referendum in Scotland. . . . And the Crimean parliament has chosen the most democratic form: the referendum is the main criterion for the expression of people’s will.”
Meanwhile, Gazprom, the Russian state gas monopoly, warned that Russian gas supplies might dry up unless Kiev settled its gas debts. Alexei Miller, the head of Gazprom, said Ukraine’s debt to the Russian state gas monopoly had jumped to $1.89 billion after Kiev missed a March 7 deadline to settle the bill for last month’s deliveries. “We can’t supply gas for free,” he said.
The parliament said the hastily arranged referendum would offer Crimeans a choice of joining Russia or remaining part of Ukraine with increased regional autonomy.
International efforts to defuse the crisis have so far been stymied. On Friday, for the second time in two days, a team of 47 military and civilian observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were blocked from entering Crimea, according to Agence France-Presse. The group was stopped by armed men at a checkpoint flying a Russian flag.
Matviyenko called the referendum historic. “We admire your fortitude and courage,” she said. “This applause is for you.”
Pro-Russia sentiment is strongest in Sevastapol, a picturesque city of about 400,000 people that is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Few people speak Ukrainian, and many residents say they think of themselves first as Russian.
The delegation met a similar reception in the lower house, where the speaker of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, said Russia was prepared to accept the results of the referendum.
Local television stations have been broadcasting lengthy videos of the protests in Kiev that led to the ouster last month of the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. The videos, played with menacing music in the background, show random acts of violence including protesters throwing molotov cocktails. They are followed by a montage of Russian soldiers from World War II and modern-day Russian sailors firing guns from ships to protect Crimea, all set to music that sounds uplifting and glorious.
“We will support the free and democratic choice of the population of Crimea and Sevastopol,” he said.
Many residents of Sevastopol say they consider the upcoming referendum an inevitability decades in the making.
Tens of thousands of people joined a rally and concert in Moscow’s Red Square on Friday to support Crimea’s aspirations to secede and join Russia.
“People have been waiting for this for 23 years,” said Olga Manko, an official with the Russian Bloc, the largest pro-Russia party in Crimea, who was referring to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Participants carrying banners saying “We Believe in Putin,” “Save Crimea from Fascists” and “Crimea is Russian Land” flocked into Red Square at the end of the working day and gathered around a stage installed on the east side of the Kremlin to listen to patriotic speeches and songs.
Gallina Glebova, a restaurant manager, said she doesn’t know anyone who wants to stay with Ukraine. “We are inseparable from Russia,” she said. “We don’t have to think how we want to vote. It will be unanimous.”
Although the West has asserted that Russia has been orchestrating the events in Crimea and stirring up trouble in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman for Putin insisted that Moscow was acting out of humanitarian motives to assist Crimeans who feared the government in Kiev.
There are people in Crimea who oppose breaking off from Ukraine, and many say they fear they will be harassed and expelled if the measure passes.
“What is happening in the east and Crimea has nothing to do with the Russian Federation,” Dmitry Peskov said in remarks excerpted Friday from a television interview that is to be broadcast Sunday. “These are not manipulated processes, let alone those that are the consequences of some actions by Russia.”
“People will be given Russian passports, and those who didn’t vote in favor of joining Russia could be deported,” said Viktor Neganov, a Sevastopol activist who opposes separation and was beaten by pro-Russia demonstrators. “We won’t have any other option. We will have to leave Crimea.”
“All in all, what we see now happening in and around Ukraine is a triumph of lawlessness, a triumph of cynicism and a triumph of the collapse of international law, a triumph of double standards,” Peskov said.
In Moscow, tens of thousands of people joined a rally and concert in Red Square on Friday to support Crimea’s aspirations to secede and join Russia.
In answering a media question on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Web site, spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the United States and the West are mishandling the Ukrainian crisis.
Participants carrying banners saying “We Believe in Putin,” “Save Crimea From Fascists” and “Crimea Is Russian Land” flocked into Red Square at the end of the working day and gathered around a stage installed near the Kremlin to listen to patriotic speeches and songs.
“It seems reflexes of the past prevailed and prevented an objective analysis of the situation,” he said. “We think that attempts to add “the NATO factor” to the already complicated and fragile situation in Ukraine are extremely dangerous, as it creates an additional element of tensions and undermines normalization prospects.”
Organizers distributed orange and black ribbons — the colors of Saint George that commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
At the Sevastopol headquarters of the Russian Bloc, the largest pro-Russian party in Crimea, men wearing party armbands climbed into vans to fan out through the city. One party member said they intended to patrol Sevastopol against “fascists,” a term commonly used by ethnic Russians to describe supporters of the new government in Kiev.
One man, who would not give his name saying he feared reprisals, said his employers had ordered him to attend the rally. “I love my motherland and I am for Crimea, so it’s all right to be here,” he said, adding that he would have been fired had he refused to attend. “You should understand that not much has changed since the Soviet Union. We don’t have gulags anymore of course, but punishments are still very tough.”
Gennady Basov, a Russian Bloc leader in Sevastopol, said a large rally in favor of joining Russia is planned for this weekend. Basov said he did not consider the referendum, announced only Thursday, to be too quick for such a big decision.
On the streets of Kiev, many expressed a sense of frustrated helplessness.
“The people have had more than 20 years to form their opinion on this,” he said, referring to the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
“No, I’m not happy about it. Crimea is part of Ukraine,” said Tanya Pyantkovska, an 18-year-old university student who was visiting memorials to the dead in Independence Square on Friday. “But what can we do?”
But those who oppose Crimea’s accession to Russia fear they will be harassed and expelled if the measure passes.
Lally reported from Moscow. Isabel Gorst in Moscow, Karen DeYoung in Washington and Anthony Faiola in Kiev contributed to this report.
“People will be given Russian passports, and those who didn’t vote in favor of joining Russia could be deported,” said Viktor Neganov, a Sevastopol activist who opposes separation and is now lying low after being beaten up by pro-Russia demonstrators. “We won’t have any other option. We will have to leave Crimea.”
Neganov, who spoke by telephone from somewhere in Crimea, said he considers the scheduled referendum to be illegal under the Ukrainian constitution.
“You can’t have a local referendum to change the national territory,” he said.
The Crimean parliament voted Thursday to join the Russian Federation and hold a referendum March 16 to validate the decision.
The body’s pro-Russian lawmakers, who took control last month, had already called for a March 30 referendum on the region’s future. But the moves Thursday marked not only an acceleration of the vote but a far more robust declaration of secession from Ukraine, where months of protests led to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych two weeks ago.
Crimea — now led by Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, a businessman and politician known around Kiev as the “Goblin” because of his alleged ties to organized crime — said it would nationalize Ukrainian state industries and begin setting up government ministries separate from Ukraine, which Crimea joined in 1954 when the nation was still part of the Soviet Union.
“This is our response to the disorder and lawlessness in Kiev,” Sergei Shuvainikov, a member of the Crimean legislature, said Thursday. “We will decide our future ourselves.”
In Washington, Obama said the world was “well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.”
In Kiev, Ukrainian officials called for dialogue with Crimea’s lawmakers even while denouncing their moves.
“This is an illegitimate decision, and this so-called referendum has no legal grounds at all,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters in Brussels, where he met with E.U. leaders. “That’s the reason why we urge the Russian government not to support those who claim separatism in Ukraine.”
The coming vote raised the prospect of violence among those who want to remain part of Ukraine, particularly the region’s ethnic Tatars. Observers also said that they had little confidence that the referendum would be fair.
Lally reported from Moscow. William Branigin in Washington and Isabel Gorst in Moscow contributed to this report.
